'Portsdb -Uu' Fails

[Rishi Chopra]

I'm attempting my first 'portsdb -Uu' after a successful CVSUp, but am 
running into some problems:

idfubar# portsdb -Uu
Updating the ports index ... perl: not found
/usr/local/sbin/make_describe_pass2:70:in `write': Broken pipe 
(Errno::EPIPE)
        from /usr/local/sbin/make_describe_pass2:70:in `puts'
        from /usr/local/sbin/make_describe_pass2:70
failed to generate INDEX!
portsdb: index generation error

Where have I failed?